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More than 130 Transportation Security Administration agents at California airports have come down with COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March, an agency count shows, and more than half of those cases have occurred at Los Angeles International Airport.

Authorities face a growing challenge in keeping TSA agents and travelers infection-free as the the nationwide case load increases, Americans begin to fly more often and holidays approach, experts said.

“The risk to the officers is increasing,” said Dr. David O. Freedman, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and founder the university’s Travelers Health Clinic. Moreover, “the more officers that are infected, the more passengers that can get infected.”

TSA officials had reported 2,425 employees testing positive nationwide, of whom eight have died.